This inquiry incorporates anthropological surveys on the life and character of the shaman, some writings of the American Plains Indians, and artist's, whose life and work reflects the power/life force so integral to the beliefs of these so called primitive cultures. Since the artist cannot be separated from his environment, the actions and reactions of society have also been explored. The method of inquiry has been to establish, first, the way of the shaman, and then the way of the artist. Although each artist, reflects only certain aspects of the enquiry, there is a strong affinity in the life and works of them all.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [294]-305).

In the Western cultural tradition there is a particular aspect of consciousness discernable in certain fictive literature; mythopoeic literary consciousness (MLC), the evolution of which may be traced back to its earliest manifestation in the cave paintings of the Upper Palaeolithic period in Europe. Researchers agree that those cave paintings are indicative of shamanic activity, which suggests an interesting relationship between shamanic consciousness and MLC. This research investigates contemporary experiences of this relationship in the context of place and the Imaginal Realm using a combination of empirical and textual methods. The evolution of the narrative psyche is described; beginning with recent interpretations of the aetiology and meaning of the European Upper Palaeolithic cave paintings. Shamanism is then examined and linkages are made with subsequent esoteric traditions such as Gnosticism, Hermeticism, the Imaginal Realm of the Sufi mystics, and the Romantic Movement in European literature. The Imaginal Realm, as a metaphysical construct, is posited in relationship to de Chardin’s Noosphere, Sheldrake’s Morphic Resonance, the Celtic Web of Wyrd and Jung’s Collective Unconscious. Empirical research is presented on contemporary expressions of this tradition. Three internationally recognised Australian authors, David Malouf, Thomas Keneally and Colleen McCullough, were either interviewed or completed a questionnaire on their backgrounds, the role of place relationships, states of consciousness when writing and reading, the role of literature and related questions. Five dedicated readers and two professionally credentialed practicing shamans completed similar questionnaires on their experiences and views on literature, the act of reading, and shamanic and creative consciousness. The responses are accompanied by textual analysis of the work of the three authors, drawing out themes of importance. Further discussion of the empirical and textual material in the context of broader literature establishes the epistemological dimensions of both mythopoeic literary consciousness and shamanic consciousness. The nature and relationship of consciousness and soul are examined from a perspective that unites them with the anima mundi and posits them in relationship with place and elsewhere-place. The concluding section revisits core themes to posit the mythopoeic writer and MLC within the heritage of a metaphysical tradition that delineates the existential boundaries of the psyche. It is argued that MLC is a manifestation of the narrative imperative of the psyche or soul to orientate itself along a place-elsewhere-place continuum, a continuum that parallels states of consciousness from the participation mystique to the de-centred self. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)